Do you tip in Italy or Sweden?
 

Just curious.....

when there is good service anywhere, you should tip.

IMO

"when there is good service anywhere, you should tip."

Not so. Tipping is a culturally determined matter. American tipping practices arise from the fact that some American service industry staff are poorly paid, one might say hardly paid at all. One should not assume that this is the case everywhere.

Where tipping is practiced outside of the USA I gather that it's more likely to be in the 5-10% range than America's 15-20%. In some countries a service charge may be added to the bill, and this will generally negate the desirability of tipping. In some countries waiters may be tipped, but not bar staff.

In some other countries, tipping just doesn't happen, the view being that if waiters are being paid a living wage to do the job, surely good service should be the expected minimum performance standard. If they're delivering less, one might ask why they're being retained in the job.

If one should tip when there is "good service anywhere", why are helpful shop assistants (to take one of many examples) not tipped?

Yes - I tip everywhwere. But in europe tip on the scale of the country - not 20% as I would in the US.

Oh goodness, another thread regarding tipping, LOL. Schnookies, look at the other thread running in the first one to fifty post on Fodor's right now regarding tipping..you will see an abundance of thoughts from all kinds of travellers.

Actually the thread is lower on the list now. The thread is "The tipping double standards for Americans". It will give you more thoughts and information then you ever wanted to know, LOL.